Illness and Communicable Diseases
- Illness and Communicable Diseases
- Respiratory Virus Illness Protocol (COVID/FLU)
- How Sick Is Too Sick
- Resources
Illness and Communicable Diseases
When groups of people are in close contact with one another for extended periods of time, the risk is high for the spread of illness and disease. That is why schools observe disease prevention and control.
To protect your child and other children from disease outbreaks, we must ask parents to help by keeping their children home when ill. Students with a temperature of 100.4 degrees or greater (without fever reducing medication) are considered to have a fever, should not be at school, and will be sent home. Other symptoms with or without a temperature of 100.4 degrees including behavior changes, headache, sore throat, nausea, coughing, and/or sneezing may indicate illness. If illness is suspected, the student will be sent home with their parent/parent designee. A student leaving school because of illness cannot ride the bus.We may ask parents to seek a medical diagnosis and treatment when the suspicion includes a communicable disease. For example, something simple like a rash may be nothing, like dermatitis, or it may be seriously contagious and potentially dangerous, like rubella (German Measles).
Even when there may be no treatment available, we might still require a definitive diagnosis from a health care provider. Please bear with us in these situations. It is much wiser to contain one rash, than to allow the spread of a serious illness throughout a school.
Kansas laws direct exactly how we must work to control the spread of communicable diseases. Wichita Public Schools follow the Kansas Classroom Handbook of Communicable Diseases. Contact your school nurse if you have any questions.
Respiratory Virus Illness Protocol (COVID/FLU)
For COVID-19, Influenza (Flu) or a Respiratory Virus, stay home and away from others until both occur for 24 hours:
- Your symptoms are getting better and
- You are fever-free (greater than 100.4 degrees F) without medication.
Then take added precaution for the next 5 days.
Core prevention strategies:
- Immunizations
- Hygiene (hand washing)
- Steps for cleaner air
- Medical treatment
- Stay home and prevent the spread
Additional prevention strategies:
- Masks
- Distancing
- Tests
Layering prevention strategies can be especially helpful when:
- Respiratory viruses are causing a lot of illnesses in your community
- You or those around you have risk factors for severe illness
- You or those around you were recently exposed, are sick, or are recovering.
How Sick Is Too Sick
- Children need to be at school so they can learn. The best way to prevent the spread of infection is with proper, frequent hand washing. Encourage children to cough and sneeze into their elbows, not hands, and refrain from touching the eyes, nose and the mouth areas with hands
- If your child needs a doctor and/or health insurance, you may contact the School Nurse for information about options available in the Wichita area
- If your child will be absent from school, please call the school office.
When is a child too sick to be at school? Here are some tips for deciding:
Illness | Child Needs To Stay Home? |
FEVER - A temperature of 100.4°F or greater
|
YES - Stay at home until 24 hours after the fever is gone without the use of medication that reduces the fever. (Tylenol/Acetominophen, Motrin/Ibuprofen) |
FLU-LIKE SYMPTOMS - Cough, headache, fatigue, body aches, vomiting and /or diarrhea with or without a fever
|
YES - Stay at home if the child is not feeling well enough to fully participate in regular school activities. Persons diagnosed wit influenza/flu shall remain on home isolation for 5 days following onset of illness or until fever-free without fever reducing medication for 24 hours, whichever is LONGER. |
COLD SYMPTOMS - Stuffy nose with clear drainage, sneezing and occasional cough |
NO - Child may come to school
|
DIARRHEA - Two or more loose or watery bowel movements compared to child’s normal ones that are not caused by food, medicine or chronic health condition
|
YES - Stay home if child looks or acts sick; if child has diarrhea with fever and isn’t acting normally; if child has diarrhea with vomiting. Stay at home until it has been 24 hours since the last diarrhea. Contact the doctor if diarrhea persists more than 24 hours with a fever. |
VOMITING - Throwing up two or more times in the past 24 hours that is not related to chronic health condition
|
YES - Stay at home until the vomiting stops or the doctor says the illness is not contagious. Stay at home until it has been 24 hours since the last time the child has vomited. Contact the doctor if the child had a recent head injury and vomiting, or if child has vomiting, fever and severe belly pain. |
COUGHING - Coughing due to respiratory illness Not related to asthma or allergies
|
YES - Stay at home if the child is unable to do regular school activities because the cough is frequent and uncontrolled. If the child is experiencing severe and uncontrolled coughing or wheezing, rapid breathing or having difficulty breathing, urgent medical attention is needed. |